Hearing aids are used to assist patient's suffering hearing loss by transmitting amplified sounds to ear canals. In one example, a hearing aid is worn in and/or around a patient's ear. Patients prefer that their hearing aids are minimally visible or invisible, do not interfere with their daily activities, and easy to maintain (such as removing earwax accumulation). However, due to the anatomical and audiological differences among patients, each hearing aid may need to be customized by a trained professional to be secured to the ear and to adequately restore the patient's hearing function.
One approach is to perform a custom fitting procedure that matches the device to a patient's ear canal. This is typically performed using an earmold and modeling the device using the patient's earmold. This procedure alone requires multiple patient visits to take the mold and then to have the device fitted to the patient. Other standard fit devices may be employed that do not require the taking of impressions, but such devices, (for example, receiver-in-the-canal devices) are typically visible to others.
Thus, there is a need for reducing size, the visits to a hearing professional, and maintenance requirements for hearing aids.